Song Lyric Sunday: “I Can’t Move No Mountains”

I know I just used this in a Battle of the Bands, but when Jim chose “hill/mountain” as the words for the week, I had to use it again, because it’s such a great song.

I’ve used The Free Movement here before, too, at the end of December when I played their 1971 hit “I’ve Found Someone Of My Own.” I really wish they had gotten more attention, because they were really good. This song was written by Robert John and Michael Gately and has been covered many, many times, including Blood Sweat & Tears. From 1973, “I Can’t Move No Mountains.”

The lyrics, from AZLyrics:

Can’t stop the rain or keep the night from falling
Sometimes I just don’t hear you when you’re calling
I’m not a one man band, can’t write no songs about you
Can’t even tell you I’d be lost without you
But I can do things that will keep you smiling
Keep your face warm baby, make you feel like flying
Without to have trying

I can’t move no mountains
No I never said I could
I can’t make you love me
But I’ll make you feel so good
Or I could now

Can’t cool the sun or make a rock give water
Sometimes I treat you like a rich man’s daughter
But I can make your heart pound with desire
Make wonder, baby, how I keep the fire
Taking you higher

I can’t move no mountains
No I never said I could
I can’t make you love me
But I’ll make you feel so good

I can’t move no mountains
I can’t move no mountains

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday for February 17, 2019.

Song Lyric Sunday: “The Song Of The Clyde”

Occasionally I get into a “Scotland” mood. Hearing the theme “river/stream/brook” did it this time.

“Song of the Clyde” was written by R. Y. Bell and Ian Gourley as “an affectionate tribute to the River Clyde in Scotland, name-checking the majority of towns and villages on its banks. Although its opening verse includes the line From Glasgow to Greenock with towns on each side, the song includes references to Lanark so fair on the river’s upper reaches and Arran on the Firth of Clyde’s southernmost outflow,” according to The Blogger’s Best Friend ™. The Scottish tenor Kenneth McKellar (from Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, which straddles the White Cart Water, a tributary of the Clyde) is most famous for singing it.

Even though the lyrics are in the video, I’ll add them here, from ElectricScotland.com:

I’ll sing of a river I’m happy beside
The song that I sing is a song of the Clyde
Of all Scottish rivers it’s dearest to me
It flows from Leadhills all the way to the sea
It borders the orchards of Lanark so fair
Meanders through meadows with sheep grazing there
But from Glasgow to Greenock, in towns on each side
The hammers’ “ding-dong” is the song of the Clyde

Oh the River Clyde, the wonderful Clyde
The name of it thrills me and fills me with pride
And I’m satisfied whate’er may betide
The sweetest of songs is the song of the Clyde

Imagine we’ve left Craigendoran behind
And wind-happy yachts by Kilcreggan we find
At Kirn and Dunoon and Innellan we stay
Then Scotland’s Madeira that’s Rothesay, they say
Or maybe by Fairlie or Largs we will go
Or over to Millport that thrills people so
Maybe journey to Arran it can’t be denied
Those scenes all belong to the song of the Clyde

Oh the River Clyde, the wonderful Clyde
The name of it thrills me and fills me with pride
And I’m satisfied whate’er may betide
The sweetest of songs is the song of the Clyde

There’s Paw an’ Maw doon at the Broomielaw
They’re goin’ “doon the water” for “The Fair”
There’s Bob an’ Mary on the Govan Ferry
Wishin’ jet propulsion could be there
There’s steamers cruisin’ and there’s “buddies” snoozin’
And there’s laddies fishin’ frae the pier
An’ Paw’s perspirin’ very near expirin’
As he rows a boat frae there to here
With eyes a-flashin’, it is voted “smashin”
To be walkin’ daily on the prom
And May and Ev’lyn are in seventh heaven
As thy stroll along with Dick and Tom
And Dumbarton Rock to ev’ry Jean and Jock
Extends a welcome that is high and wide
Seems to know that they are on their homeward way
To hear the song of the Clyde

Oh the River Clyde, the wonderful Clyde
The name of it thrills me and fills me with pride
And I’m satisfied whate’er may betide
The sweetest of songs is the song of the Clyde

The sweetest of songs is the song of the Clyde

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday for February 10, 2019.

Song Lyric Sunday: “San Francisco Bay Blues”

Jim’s choice of prompts for today’s Song Lyric Sunday are “ocean/lake/sea/bay,” songs about bodies of water. I thought of a lot of songs, since there are so many with that theme, and in the end I chose Jesse Fuller’s “San Francisco Bay Blues.” Jesse Fuller, as you’ll see here, was a regular one-man band, playing guitar, harmonica, kazoo, hi-hat cymbals, and the fotdella, an instrument of his own invention that was kind of like an early bass machine (you can read about it here). The song’s been covered a lot by the likes of Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, and Eric Clapton, who included it in his MTV Unplugged concert back in the ’90’s. Here’s Jesse Fuller with “San Francisco Bay Blues.”

Lyrics courtesy MetroLyrics…

I got the blues from my baby left me by the San Francisco Bay,
 The ocean liner’s gone so far away. 
Didn’t mean to treat her so bad,
she was the best girl I ever have had, 
She said goodbye, I can take a cry,
I want to lay down and die.
I ain’t got a nickel and I ain’t got a lousy dime. 
She don’t come back, think I’m going to lose my mind. 
If she ever gets back to stay,
it’s going to be another brand new day,
 Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay.

Sitting down looking from my back door, 
Wondering which way to go,
 The woman I’m so crazy about,
she don’t love me no more.
 Think I’ll catch me a freight train,
’cause I’m feeling blue, 
And ride all the way to the end of the line,
thinking only of you.
Meanwhile, in another city,
Just about to go insane,
Thought I heard my baby, Lord, the way she used to call my name.
If I ever get her back to stay,
it’s going to be another brand new day,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay.

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday for February 3, 2019.

Song Lyric Sunday: “No Time”

Now, you see the song I’ve picked for this week’s theme, which happens to be “no,” as selected by Di over at pensitivity101, and you immediately think “of course! John’s gonna give us another Guess Who song!”

And you would be wrong…

John Weldon “J. J.” Cale was best known as a songwriter, with his songs covered by Eric Clapton (“Cocaine,” “After Midnight”), Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Call Me The Breeze”), Poco (“Magnolia”) and many others, but he was also a pretty damn good singer and guitarist who recorded 15 studio albums and collaborated on several others, including The Road To Escondido (2006) with Clapton, which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2008. I bought a tape of his 1990 album, Travel-Log, and carried it with me everywhere when I was traveling, playing it on rental car tape decks whenever they were available. I loved that album and still do. The third song on the album (or, back in the cassette/vinyl LP days, the third track on Side 1) is “No Time.”

AZLyrics supplies the lyrics today…

No time for making my moves, no time
No time for hitting my groove, no time

Summer comes and summer gone
When I sing the very same song
Set apart of all the scene
How we long for all our dreams

No time for making no moves, no time
No time for hitting no grooves, no time

The clock it turns at a rapid pace
Takes us to another place
The train it goes from here to there
Just left me standing here

No time for making my moves, no time
No time for hitting my grooves, no time

I had the blues this morning I cried all day
I guess you lose the blues in the morning If you cry ’em away

No time for making my moves, oh no time
No time for hitting my grooves, no, no time

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday for January 27, 2019.

Song Lyric Sunday: “Cry Me A River”

I understand that my good friend Mary B over at Jingle Jangle Jungle chose today’s prompt, “crying/sadness.” There were two ways I could have gone with this, and I figured one of them was a perfect Battle of the Bands (which you’ll see February 1), so I’m going with the other here.

Arthur Hamilton’s “Cry Me A River” is the quintessential torch song, in my never-humble opinion, and when sung by the quintessential torch singer (again, IMNHO), Julie London, accompanied only by super session men Barney Kessel on guitar and Ray Leatherwood on bass, the result is pure magic. Without further ado (yes, that is the way it’s spelled), from 1955, Julie London, “Cry Me A River.”

The lyrics, according to Last.fm:

Now you say you’re lonely
You cry the whole night through
Well you can cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
Now you say you’re sorry
For being so untrue
Well you can cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
You drove me, nearly drove me
Out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, I remember
All that you said
Told me love was too plebian
Told me you were through with me
And now you say you love me
Well, just to prove you do
Come on and cry me a river
Cry me a river
I cried a river over you
I cried a river over you
I cried a river over you
I cried a river over you

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday on a very windy January 20, 2019.